This is just a start, I'm composing an outlined screen play ( Act I; Biosphere, Scene I; Atmosphere, scene II; Rizosphere etc.), including more quips and analogies.
Below , I'm just throwing out ideas, philosophy, sources, to you all, as I flesh it out to present to my list of other principle people and the forums for further input and support.
Thanks for all edits and suggestions,
Erich
540 289 9750
The Script We Need;
People need to see this process for their eyes NOT to glaze over.
A scaling animation, (or at least Power point/flow chart) following the path of the molecules of interest as they feed through the soil food web.
This is an example of what I would like to see done, through the Biosphere instead of the Universe, to explain biochar tech to the masses;
Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Secret Worlds: The Universe Within - Interactive Java Tutorial
It will take a multidisciplinary effort, organic& bio chemistry, all the way to atmospheric science with many in between.
Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw, "Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes "Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !". Free Carbon Condominiums, build it and they will come.
As one microbologist said on the list; "Microbes like to sit down when they eat". By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.
Staring as the main characters:
nano; compounds, ions, chemistry
micro; microbes, fungi, algae
macro; wee-beasties, worms, bugs & us
At each scale show their bio char enhanced qualities/populations relative to standard soils.
Take note grad students looking for a great project writing this biologic screen play!
Act I - Biosphere
Scene I
Atmosphere
Zoom in through atmosphere, telling the story of each relevent CHG. (C02, N20, CH4).
At 30,000 ft., survey geographic carbon sinks and sources.
Account the airborne bacteria, dust, fungal spores + rain nucleation, lighting and nitrates, (the success of SOX and NOX cap and trade system)
Bio-carbon's Hg scrubbing potential for coal-fired power generation,
Plant respiration, biomass + rot.
Scene II
Rizosphere
Plant root / fungi symbiosis; superhighway for moisture and nutrients, Internet for plant chemical communication, Extending roots 100 fold.
Glomalins; 1/3 of soil carbon - soil aggregate glue - Soil texture
Act II - BioChar
Scene I
A Wee-Beastie Feast
Circumventing the carbon cycle. Charcoal vs. rot.
The cornucopia for the rest of the Wee-Beastie food web.
Increased; CEC, Humic substances, microbes, fungi, worms etc.
Soil Bioturbation; Aeration+ moisture, and and methane reductions.
Increased; Glomalins - aggregation - tilth, N20 emissions connection.
Absorptive mechanisms;nutrient holding + downstream effects.
Biologic and Absorptive mechanisms for toxic soil Restoration / Mitigation.
Biochar viewed as soil infrastructure; The old saying;"feed the soil, not the plants" becomes "Feed, clothe, and house the Soil with all utilities". Furnished Carbon condominiums, no fees, carboxylated fats in the pantry, hydroxyl alcohol mini bar,
Scene II
Climate, Biofuels and Bread
Pryolsis economics at all scales, the climate effect when brought to full scale,
The only soil amendment that keeps on working.
The total C02e (equivalent) value of Biochar soil's concomitant benefits.
How soil CO2 emissions need to struggle through the green plant canopy before becoming a GHG .
Crop results.
A Whole New Order of Husbandry
Further episodes:
Bring Out the Plow One Last Time
BioChar and Fungi Synergies
Incubating Biochar with Compost
Philosophy:
The paleoclimatology of Ruddiman at VT, showing the hallmarks of agriculturally induced soil carbon to the atmosphere.
Energy, the carbon cycle and greenhouse gas management
The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon sequestration. I wonder what the rizosphere soil carbon concentration was REALLY like before the cutting and burning of the world's forest, only very recent Ag practices like no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.
A reply I made to the Biochar list,
biochar : Biochar concerning worms and other soil life;
Many reports on TP cite high moisture and bioturbation of soil credited to worms and termites. I have seen many reports of worms loving char in compost (below);
"One of the most impressive things I have seen in my composts is how worms love the added biochar, in a 400lt bin I have noticed up to 80% of the worms are focused in the layers which contain the char, I feel worms play a massive roll in moving char about. As I also char beef bones I'm sure the added calcium attracts them. I have noticed this over the last 4 compost batches I have made. "
I feel worms and all the Wee beasties are movers and shakers of soil growth and motility, If there are microbes to eat, worms will come.
( Charles Mann contents, in the May 07 NGM Jamestown article, that earth and blood worms are invasive species, brought to north America by Jamestown colonist, which have profoundly changed soil ecology and spread across the country in the past 400 years.)
New Soils Book;
Dr. Nardi, a scientist at the University of Illinois, writes in his newly published book, "Life in the Soil," that a square meter of healthy garden soil is home to 10 trillion bacteria, 10 billion protozoa, 5 million nematodes, 100,000 mites, 50,000 springtails, 10,000 creatures called rotifers and tardigrades, 5,000 insects and arachnids, 3,000 worms and 100 snails and slugs. Throw in the occasional mammal such as a chipmunk or a mole, and a salamander or two, and you get the idea that you don't have to travel to the Brazilian rain forest to luxuriate in the biodiversity at our feet.
THE CASTING CALL:
In E. O. Wilson's "The Future of Life" he opens the book with a letter to Thoreau updating him on our current understanding of the nature of the ecology of the soils at Walden Pond.
" These arthropods are the giants of the microcosm (if you will allow me to continue what has turned into a short lecture). Creatures their size are present in dozens-hundreds, if an ant or termite colony is presents. But these are comparatively trivial numbers. If you focus down by a power of ten in size, enough to pick out animals barely visible to the naked eye, the numbers jump to thousands. Nematode and enchytraied pot worms, mites, springtails, pauropods, diplurans, symphylans, and tardigrades seethe in the underground. Scattered out on a white ground cloth, each crawling speck becomes a full-blown animal. Together they are far more striking and divers in appearance than snakes, mice, sparrows, and all the other vertebrates hereabouts combined. Their home is a labyrinth of miniature caves and walls of rotting vegetable debris cross-strung with ten yards of fungal threads. And they are just the surface of the fauna and flora at our feet. Keep going, keep magnifying until the eye penetrates microscopic water films on grains of sand, and there you will find ten billion bacteria in a thimbleful of soil and frass. You will have reached the energy base of the decomposer world as we understand it 150 years after you sojourn in Walden Woods."
Certainly there remains much work to just characterize all the estimated 1000 species of microbes found in a pinch of soil, and Wilson concludes at the end of the prolog that;
"Now it is up to us to summon a more encompassing wisdom."
To gain this "More encompassing wisdom" people need to see this process. A scaling video animation or Power Point is desperately needed, following the path of the molecules & compounds of interest as they feed through the soil food web.Starting nano to micro to macro as the main characters, at each scale, show their biochar enhanced qualities relative to standard soils.
Perhaps this quote taken form "The Nature and Properties of Soils, Eleventh Edition ,Authors, Nyle C.Brady and Ray R. Weil, Copyright 1996," taken from page 365, under the heading "Soils and the Greenhouse Effect", can be useful:
" Because the soil can act as a major source or sink for carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, it is clear that, together with steps to modify industrial outputs, soil management can play a major role in controlling the emissions of greenhouse gases."
Source Material;
Renewable Energy Policy Project Data Base; TP-REPP
Movies of Soil Life
Broad-band version;
Soil Biology Movies
Dial-up ;
Soil Biology Movies
USDA Agricultural Research:
This presentation is one of the best I've seen to get across how MYC / AMF symbiotically permeates all in roots & soils, and elucidates often hidden benefits. Very nice pictures;
http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles...hioCents06.pdf
Microorganisms;
Proliferation of Microorganisms in Compost by Addition of Bamboo Charcoals (Shuji Yoshizawa, Michio Ohata, Satoko Tanaka)
SEM photograph of microorganism in bamboo charcoal.
In Japan, charcoal and compost of biomass waste have been used for a long time as soil improvers in farms. Wood and bamboo charcoals have pores of several microns or several ten microns which are suitable for microorganisms grown for composting the biomass waste.
It was observed as shown in the photograph (left) taken by scanning electron micrograph (SEM) technique that the microorganisms proliferated on the charcoal powder and in the pores of the charcoal.
07.2005: ACER News vol.2
Bacteria
Total weight of all the bacteria on Earth is greater than the combined weight of every other living thing on the planet!!
There are more bacteria in your mouth right now than the total population of planet Earth, including all the people who have ever lived
Bacteria live in us, on us, and around us
Human body contains about 100 trillion cells
90 trillion of those cells are actually bacteria
Only 1 out of ten cells in your body are actually your cells!!
Total Number of Bacteria on Earth:
Out-Numbered: First-ever estimate suggest more than half of Earth's protoplasm is bacterial
In soil ; 1220 gigatons (Billion Tons, to 1 m depth)
Amazing utility of fungi
Paul Stamets - Bioremediation with Fungi
How the lion's share of sugars that plants produce feed the fungi, to extend the functionality of roots 100 times over, in order for the plant make the sugars that we consume.
Research:
Transect graph showing plant benefits decline beyond to 30% Char;
Submitted by ursine on Wed, 2008-08-06 01:11
Box Plots Showing Effect of Composition Across Three Transects
Figure 1. Box Plots Showing Effect of Composition Across Three Transects
Effects of Varied Soil Composition (Char, Sand, Potting Mix) on the Growth of Radish Starts | BioEnergy Lists: Terra Preta (Biochar)
Nice Crop Pictures;
http://www.biochar.info/biochar.biochar-overview.cfml
Education
Here, you can freely register your biochar soil amendment trials in a standard format, CharML (Charcoal Markup Language), browse the registered trials and reuse parts of them to create new protocols.
CharDB: the biochar trials database
COMING SOON !! to a YouTube near you.
Cheers,
Erich
289 9750
